Earthquake actuated shut-off valve



Sept 15, 1936- s, H. HANSEN EARTHQUAKE ACTUATED SHUT-OFF VALVE Filed March 14, 1954 0 INVENToR.

BY p 1 WMM /v/ l ATTORNEYS.

Patented Sept. 15, 1936 f UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EARTHQUAKE rrs ,snort-OFF Sidney 'HJ Hansen, Berkeley, Calif. v Application March 14, 1934, Serial No. 715,511

2 Claims. (Cl. 1375-139) This invention. relates to automatic shut-ofi' ing or dwelling will absolutely prevent such indevices for use in connection with fluid conveyflammable uids from escaping into the dwelling pipe lines in areas subject to earthquakes or ing or building .through the distributing pipes shocks. The pipe lines conveying inflammable and associated apparatus and ttings in the fluids such as gas and oil through dwellings or building, which may be broken by the forces of Vi? other buildings and the mains leading to such earthquakes or shocks. This, of course, will dwellings or buildings are liable to be broken by eliminate the hazards of explosions and fires earthquakes or shocks. This, of course, produces which usually occur after earthquakes and shocks a considerable hazard of explosion and fires. due to the presence of inflammable fluids in l0 Therefore, it is the principalobject o'f my .indwellings and buildings. l0' vention to provide an ecient mechanism which The apparatus as illustrated in the drawing may be associated with a pipe line conveying an includes a 4housing I0 having a removable cover inflammable huid and which will automatically II. The apparatus also includes a valve body I2 operate upon the occurrence of earthquakes or which, in the present instance, is illustrated as shocks to close a valve in such pipe line to\ disformed integral with the housing III. It is apl5 continue further passage of fluid through the parent, however, that the valve body I2 may be pipe line. otherwise attached to the housing I0 or in some In practicing my invention, I provide a mechainstances may be entirely separate therefrom and nism which includes a shut-off valve which is located at a point comparatively remote from the interposed in the pipe line to be controlled, which housing IIJ. zo valve is normally maintained open. Associated The valve body I2 is of a conventional design with the valve is a mechanism capable of operaincluding an inlet connection I4 and an outlet tion by earthquakes or shocks. This mechanism. connection I5. The chamber within the body I2 in the present embodiment includesa pendulumis formed with a partition I6 interposed between like member which is operated by earthquakes the inlet and outlet connections I4 and I5, which 25 or shocks, regardless of the direction of such partition I8 is formed with a valve port II which quakes, and when so operated, acts through an is circumscribed by valve seat I8. A valve memefficient intermediate mechanism to close the ber I9 is reciprocally mounted in the valve body valve and prevent further passage of fluid through I2 for cooperation with-the seat I8 to control the the line in which the valve is interposed. passage of a fluid through the port I6. A spring 30 One form which the invention may assume is I9a.' is arranged in the valve Vbody'and associated exemplified in the following description and illuswith the valve member I8 and constantly tends trated by way of example in the accompanying to maintain the valve I8 seated. drawing, in which: .Reciprocally mounted in the valve body f2 Fig. l is a central vertical sectional view above the valve member I8 is a valve control 35 through an apparatus embodying the preferred member .28, which abuts against the upper end form of my invention. of the stem of the valve member I8. By depress- Fig. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus with the ing the member 20 the valve I8 is unseated. Pivcover plate of the housing removed to clearly ilotally connected with the valve body is a valve lustrate the trigger operating mechanism of the operating lever 2| which is in the form of a bell 40 apparatus. crank lever. One arm of the lever 2| is posi- In the accompanying drawing I have disclosed tioned to engage the upper end of the member 20. the preferred embodiment of my invention. The The other arm of the lever 2I projects upwardly apparatus, however, may be produced in various and is connected with a trip link 22.

other forms without departing from the inven- Arranged within the housing IIl is whatIprefer 45 tion. The apparatus illustrated in the drawing to term a pendulum 23, which includes a weighted is primarily intended for use in shutting oil? the sphere 24 secured on the lower end of an updelivery of inflammable fluids, such as gas and wardly extending stem 25. Adjacent its upper oil through a main pipe line leading to a dwelling end, this stem is connected with a support 28 or other building immediately upon the occurrigidly secured in the upper end of the housing 50 rence of an earthquake or shock. The apparatus, I0 by a ball and socket connection 26. Above however, may be used for closing pipe lines conthe ball joint the stem 25 is fitted with a wobble veying other iiuids than those referred to. disc 29 which is rigidly secured to the stem 25 It is manifest that the shut-off of a delivery and which assumes a perfectly horizontal posipipe line conveying inflammable fluids to a buildtion when the pendulum is dormant. 55

Overlying the wobble disc 29 is a. trip disc 30 which is in register with the wobble disc and which has a radially projecting arm 3| hinged for vertical swinging movement to a trip lever 32. This trip lever 32 is pivoted intermediate its ends on a pintle 33 which is rigid with respect to the housing l0. The connection between the arm 3| and the trip lever 32 is such, however, that the arm 3| and its connected trip disc 30 will swing about the pintle 33 in conjunction with the lever 32, although permitting the trip disc 30 to swing vertically independently of the lever 32.

At the side of the trip disc 30 almost opposed to the arm 3|, the trip disc 30 is provided with a trip linger 34 which is normally in engagement with a trip pin 35 rigidly fixed to the housing I0. However, by elevation of the trip disc 30, due to the operation of the wobble disc 29, the trip nger 34 may be disengaged from the trip pin 35 allowing swinging movement of the trip lever 32 about the pintle 33, which movement is induced by a tension spring 35 connected at one end to the trip lever 32 and at the other end to the housing I0 as at 31.

It will be seen that one arm of the trip lever 32 is connected to the trip link 22 so that operation of the trip lever 32 will be accompanied by operation of the valve lever 2|. When the trip disc V30 is held in untripped position, illustrated in Fig. 2, with the finger 34 engaged with the trip pin 35, the valve lever 2l is maintained in a position holding the valve member I8 unseated through the medium of the member 20. However, when the trip disc 30 is tripped and is caused to swing about the pintle 33 by the spring 36, the valve lever 2| is moved to a position permitting the spring |911 to seat the valve |8 and shut-01T further delivery of fluid through the valve.

To reset the mechanism after tripping, it is only necessary to remove the cover plate and move the trip disc 30 back to the position where it may be engaged with the trip pin 35.

In operation of the apparatus, it is constructed and assembled as illustrated in the drawing and the valve body l2 is interposed in the pipe line which it is desired to control. The trip disc 30 is then positioned so that its finger 34 will be engaged with the trip pin 35. In this position the valve will be open. Should an earthquake or shock occur, the pendulum 23 will be induced to swing. Due to the fact that the pendulum is suspended from a ball socket connection, the sphere 24 may swing in any direction and thus thev pendulum will operate regardless of the direction of the shock. VIf the pendulum is caused to swing a suicient amount, the marginal edge of the wobble disc 29 at one point will be elevated suciently to raise the trip disc 30 and disengage the finger 34 from the trip pin 35.

Due to the fact that both the wobble and tripping discs are circular, the above-described tripping action will occur regardless of the direction in which the pendulum swings.

Immediately the nger 34 is disengaged from the trip pin 35, the spring 36 will cause the lever 32 to swing about its pintle 33. This, through the medium of the link 22 and the valve lever 2|, will release the valve I8 and permit its spring to seat the valve, shutting off further flow of iluid through the pipe line which it is desired to control.

It will be noticed that the entire operating mechanism is completely enclosed to prevent tarnpering and also that it may be placed underground, if desired.

From the foregoing it is obvious that I have provided a very eiiicient and effective apparatus for immediately shutting oiI the delivery of fluid through a pipe line upon the occurrence of an earthquake or shock, and while I have illustrated and described the apparatus in detail, it is to be understood that various changes may be made in its construction and in the arrangement of parts by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention as dened in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination with a. normally closed vlave, latch means retaining the valve in an open position, a hinged disc forming a part of said latch means and disposed in a predetermined plane when the latch means is effective, a universally mounted pendulum suspended beneath said hinged disc, a wobble disc secured to the pendulum and contacting said hinged disc, whereby swinging movement of the pendulum in any direction will move the hinged disc to release the latch means and permit the valve to close.

2. In a device for closing a valve automatically in the event of shock, a spring urging the valve to closed position, a pivoted valve lever engageable with the valve to hold it open, a second lever, means connecting said levers whereby the valve lever will be controlled by movement of the second lever, a disc pivotally connected with the second lever, latch means carried by the disc opposite its pivoted connection and retaining the levers in a position holding the valve open, a wobble discunderlying the rst-named disc and in contact therewith, and a universally mounted pendulum fixed relative to the wobble disc whereby movement of the pendulum will rock the rst named disc to release the latch and permit the valve to close.

SIDNEY H. HANSEN. 

